DIY Sailor Bow Tutorial and Free Pattern

DIY Sailor Bows

New post up on www.nataliemalan.com!  I'm sharing photo instructions and a downloadable pattern for making little girl Sailor Bows as well as the cute mini Baby Sailor Bow as well!  They've been all over Instagram and Etsy the last few months and can be hard to get so now you can make your own in any fabric you'd like! 

A winner! and a baby date!

And the winner picked by the random number generator is:

Comment #2! By Kelsey!
"My little one isn't born yet, but my favorite baby item so far is the mobile that I'm sewing. I'm sewing little felt animals that are native to this area and it's turning out very cute!"

Kelsey, I bet your mobile is adorable! I'd love to see it when you get it all done! Be sure to click on the contact button to the left to email me to claim your prize!

I agree with Michelle's comment about the minivac; got DH one a year ago, and I'm pretty sure it's his favorite "appliance" - if you can call it that.

And the big news with our family is that we found out baby M is not interested in flipping over (still breech!), so she's scheduled to make her grand appearance on Monday evening via Csection! Wish us luck! I have butterflies in my stomach. Or maybe those are hiccups....

fleur playmat + pillow! and Giveaway!

It's a......... playmat!!! Mine is not as darling as the original with it's cute pink cheeks and eyes, but my Heather Bailey "Pop Garden" fabrics were sooo bright and striking that I had a hard time finding coordinating pieces for my cheeks. Ah, maybe someday, but for now, I love it just how it is. It looks just like a huge beautiful flower.
I had been looking forever for a cute rug for her room. Didn't even cross my mind to make one until I was surfing around on blogs, and this little gem caught my eye! And I thought, "perfect!" It will coordinate, and I have bunches of little scraps to use up for all those gorgeous petals.
If you want to make one, or have someone make one for you, it was a great project, I really enjoyed the whole process, and the talented Leslie of "onegirldesignwrks.blogspot.com" sells the beautiful "fleur playmat + pillow" pattern on Etsy! You just download your .pdf and away you go to the fabric store. I started mine on Friday night and worked on and off on it over the weekend, and it was all done by Monday night. I just couldn't wait.

Thanks again Leslie for such a fun, functional, and pretty project!
(Isn't that face just too cute?!?!)

And just for the fun of it, I think we should have another pcLayers gift card giveaway. I loved reading all your fun comments from the last giveaway, and would love to hear more. How about another chance at $30 to spend on some great digi kits?! Leave me a comment, either just some love, or if you have a kiddo tell me what your favorite baby item is and why. It could be beautiful, useful, frivolous, or just plain weird - but whatever it is I'd like to know!

Drawing will be open till noon MST Saturday March 7th, be sure to check back that night to see if you've won! (Winner will be posted to the blog). Good luck!

Enter to Win! And my 2 biggest fears for l+d

With less than 20 days till my due date I've been thinking about the whole labor and delivery process. And there are two things that top my list of fears, and here they are in order of importance to me:

#1. She will not be a girl. (and I will have to completely redo her uber stylish pink insanely girly bedroom and wardrobe - and my son will come home from the hospital wearing this). I should explain that I have no problem having a baby boy [in fact, I had high hopes of having a mini DH lacrosse player], I thought that's what I was going to have - before I knew. I'm just completely not prepared for one. And if you know me, you know I like to prepare. A LOT).

#2. My epidural won't work - and I have no plan B. (with all the craziness around here the last couple months my prenatal classes consisted of the lamest DVD EVER in the history of lame DVDs, that I checked out from the hospital. I think it was written for fourth graders. But apparently there's a market for that kind of thing now).

Basically those two things top the charts for me. What were/are your biggest fears? On becoming a mother OR father? Leave a comment here on the blog with one or two, and I'll enter you to win a $30 gift card to pcLayers, we'll pick a winner at 12noon MST on Wednesday 02.25.09 by the random number generator so be sure to check back then and see if you've won!

P.S. I love that in the pic above; you can't even tell I just jumped out of the shower and my hair is dripping wet in a towel and I don't have a scrap of makeup on. Yay, for creative cropping.